Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
.jpg?width=160 "Joseph Karl Stieler · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons")
1749 – 1832 · 83 years · Weimar · Europe
Germany's greatest poet, author of Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther; also a Weimar statesman, botanist and theorist of colour.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Joseph Karl Stieler · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
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Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Ludwig van Beethoven — German composer, 21 years younger
- Napoleon Bonaparte — Emperor of the French, 20 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 7 years younger
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 55 years older
- Charles Darwin — naturalist, author of evolutionary theory, 60 years younger
- Karl Marx — philosopher and economist, 69 years younger
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 20 years older
- Alexander Pushkin — Russian poet, 50 years younger
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, 38 years older
- Fyodor Dostoevsky — novelist, 72 years younger
- Mikhail Kutuzov — Russian field marshal, 4 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 19 years older
Middle East
- Mahmud II — sultan who destroyed the Janissaries, 36 years younger
- Selim III — reforming Ottoman sultan, 12 years younger
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 46 years older
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 24 years older
- Mustafa IV — sultan who overthrew the reformer Selim III, 30 years younger
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 32 years older
Africa
- Muhammad Ali of Egypt — ruler of Egypt, 20 years younger
- Shaka — King of the Zulu, 38 years younger
- David Livingstone — explorer of Africa and missionary, 64 years younger
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 5 years younger
- Ranavalona I — Queen of Madagascar, 29 years younger
- Moshoeshoe I — founder of Lesotho, 37 years younger
Asia
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 11 years younger
- Tokugawa Ienari — longest-serving shogun, for half a century, 24 years younger
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 38 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 2 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieyoshi — shogun who died just after the Black Ships arrived, 44 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieharu — shogun of the Tanuma era and the Tenmei famine, 12 years older
Americas
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 17 years older
- Simón Bolívar — liberator of South America, 34 years younger
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 43 years older
- Abraham Lincoln — 16th President of the United States, 60 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 6 years older
- Andrew Jackson — 7th US president, the Trail of Tears and the Jacksonian era, 18 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 21 years older
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 9 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 24 years older
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 11 years older
- Hongi Hika — Ngāpuhi Māori chief, 23 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 15 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 6, Europe
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 7, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 8, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 11, Europe
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 13, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 15, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 19, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 19, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 20, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 23, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 27, Americas
- 1783–1784 Laki eruption — aged 34, Europe
- 1783 Russian annexation of Crimea (1783) — aged 34, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1783 First manned balloon flight — aged 34, Europe
- 1787 US Constitution — aged 38, Americas
- 1788 First Fleet arrives in Australia — aged 39, Oceania
- 1789 Storming of the Bastille — aged 40, Europe
- 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen — aged 40, Europe
- 1791–1804 Haitian Revolution — aged 42, Americas
- 1796 Jenner's first vaccination — aged 47, Europe
- 1798 Battle of the Pyramids — aged 49, Africa
- 1803 Louisiana Purchase — aged 54, Americas
- 1804 Coronation of Napoleon — aged 55, Europe
- 1804–1813 First Serbian Uprising — aged 55, Europe
- 1804–1903 Usman dan Fodio's jihad and the Sokoto Caliphate — aged 55, Africa
- 1805–1848 Muhammad Ali becomes ruler of Egypt — aged 56, Africa
- 1805 Battle of Trafalgar — aged 56, Europe
- 1810–1826 Spanish American wars of independence — aged 61, Americas
- 1812 Napoleon's invasion of Russia — aged 63, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1814–1815 Congress of Vienna — aged 65, Europe
- 1815 Eruption of Mount Tambora — aged 66, Asia
- 1815 Battle of Waterloo — aged 66, Europe
- 1816 Year Without a Summer — aged 67, Europe
- 1817–1824 First cholera pandemic — aged 68, Asia
- 1817 San Martín's Crossing of the Andes — aged 68, Americas
- 1819 Raffles founds modern Singapore — aged 70, Asia
- 1822 Independence of Brazil — aged 73, Americas
- 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay — aged 79, Middle East
- c. 1831 Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa — aged 82, Asia